1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation unit, supervisory unit, display unit, operation display unit and supervisory control system provided with those units. More particularly, the present invention concerns a technique for monitoring and controlling object loads connected to control units and also for displaying the controlled status of object loads which are compared with preset status data or control data after controlling.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a supervisory control system for controlling residential equipment such as lighting apparatus and air conditioner on the basis of operation and supervisory information using an operation unit or a supervisory unit in various buildings such as office buildings. In some kinds of power equipment, for example, the system is so constructed as to start the equipment when an activating request signal is received by a supervisory unit from some other equipment or put an emergency stop to the equipment when a warning signal indicating abnormal heating or other abnormal conditions is received by the supervisory unit. Also, in lighting system, the system is so constructed as to turn on or turn off lighting apparatus every time a switch of the supervisory unit mounted on the wall is pressed.
In those controls, a plurality of loads can also be controlled through one operation or a change in monitoring information. The known methods of controlling a plurality of loads includes group control in which all the loads are controlled in the same status, patterning control in which the loads are respectively controlled in different status (for example, scene control of lighting to create a dark area and a light area etc according to a purpose of use), and on/off patterning control in which each of a plurality of loads is controlled on or off status (for example, partially turning on only some lights during the days to save energy, turning off lights near a projector and turning on the other lights in case the projector is used).
In a certain known supervisory control system, furthermore, the status of load group, patterning, on/off patterning is compared with preset data memorized in advance in memory means on the basis of load condition information from a plurality of control units and the comparison results are displayed on the display unit or the operation display unit.
FIGS. 17a and 17b show the configuration and the operation of the prior art supervisory control system. In the system shown in FIG. 17a, a master unit 100, an operation unit 101, (or an operation display unit having a display section as well as an operation section), a supervisory unit 102 and a plurality (1 to n) of control units 103 are connected via the communication line L.
In case loads 104 connected to the control units 103 are controlled, operation information of the operation unit 101 and information on changes of status in monitored conditions at the supervisory unit 102 are first received by the master unit 100, and thereafter control requests are sent from the master unit 100 to a plurality of the control units 103 on the basis of information stored in the master unit 100.
In the system shown in FIG. 17b, the master unit 100, the display unit 105 (or an operation display unit mentioned above), a plurality (1 to n) of control units 103 connected to a respective loads 104 are connected to each other via the communication line L.
In case the conditions of the loads 104 connected to the control units 103 are displayed on the display unit 105, the master unit 100 receives information on load conditions from a plurality of control units 103, and compares group and patterning conditions and sends their comparison information to the display unit 105 where the information is displayed.
However, there are inevitable restriction with this system, that is the master unit 100 is by all means needed. Accordingly, there arises the possibility that if the master unit 100 is out of order or the communication line L breaks off, it will be impossible to control a plurality of the loads 104 in the whole system.
FIGS. 18a, 18b and 18c show a system which needs no master unit. This system sends out control request signals directly to the control unit 201 from the operation unit 200 (or remote display unit, supervisory unit) via a communication line L.
In this system, the operation unit 200 memorizes the communication address of the control unit 201 and sends control information directly or the control unit 201 memorizes the addresses of the display unit etc. and sends information on load conditions directly. But the one-to-one sending of information, that is, the system is based on an individual control and an individual condition display. But group control is achieved in such a way that the sender unit makes the addresses of the destination unit a group number (group address), whereby the same data is sent to a plurality of units whose group number is preset in advance. FIG. 18a shows an example of individual control, FIG. 18b an example of group control, and FIG. 18c on/off patterning control.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the operation unit 200 in on/off patterning control as shown in FIG. 18c. The operation unit 200 comprises a central processing section 210, a communication section 211, a memory section 212 and an operation unit 213. In the memory section 212, the communication address of the control unit 201 to which object loads 202 to be controlled are connected is stored related to control conditions. The communication section 211 is provided with means for outputting a control request signal to each control unit 201.
In the prior supervisory control system above-mentioned, however, some problems remain, that is in executing various control such as patterning control in which a plurality of loads are each controlled in different conditions or on/off patterning control in which a plurality of loads are each on or off controlled, the operation unit or the supervisory unit for sending out control request signals have to memorize the communication addresses of all the control units or of all the object loads connected to each control unit and of all the control conditions desired by users to be executed.
However, unlike the master unit shown in FIG. 17, those units are such small devices that are mounted at different and scattered places, so they are also small in memory storage capacity, therefore they can not be available as they are for large-scale group control, large scale pattering control, or large scale on/off pattering control. Thus it is attempted to execute those controls, there would arise substantial increasing in cost for constitution. In addition, it is of course impossible to execute complicated control to answer users' various needs.
Furthermore, when control checking in display units is attempted to execute for group control, patterning control, or on/off patterning control, there are various restrictions and thus it is impossible any way to perform control checking for large-scale group control, patterning control, on/off patterning control. However, provided that such checking is done, that would substantially increase the cost.